This is adapted from the parallel diary on DailyKos, which I hope you’ll go recommend as I do say nice words about BT as well!
It’s been two years today already since European Tribune went live, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to encourage you guys, who have already done so much to make that site exist, to continue to drop by and enjoy one of the highest signal-to-noise ratios of the blogosphere (says, in a typically arrogant European manner, the obviously-unbiased editor of the site!).
It’s just one click away: European Tribune (in case you’ve forgotten about the links in the top bar and the right hand column!)
A few words of thanks and thoughts below.
First of all, credit should go to Martin (Booman) who got BT started just a few months before, and suggested that we build a second site more focused on Europe. He provided the infrastructure, much needed guidance on how to run the site, and a friendly community to write for, as BT already had an international section built in. The two communities have now grown in their own way and have, to a large extent, become independent, but many of you are faithful to both sites and enjoy the different perspective they provide. We always enjoy your presence when you drop by, don’t forget to do at least occasionally, it’s so easy from here on BT!
I’ll add a word of thank here for Welshman, who provided a lot of useful and on-point input during the preparation of the site. He finally chose not to participate to ET and we’ve had our disagreements since then, but he deserves a friendly nod for his early role in this adventure.
Some of the early frontpagers, Soj and Sirocco are no longer with us, but they helped get the site started and provided a lot of excellent content during our first year. As far as I can tell, Soj’s EuroPDB: June 13, 2005 was the first front page story 2 years ago. Colman and Fran, who joined almost from the start, as well as whataboutbob, who joined us a few weeks later, are still with us today, and Fran’s daily Salon – her detailed daily review of the international press – is in many ways the backbone of the site. It provides us every morning of the year with a comprehensive overview of news as seen from many different countries, an excellent base to engage in informed conversation and an easy source for many of our front page stories. Reading the Salon every day allows you to know what’s going on in the world before everybody else – and to tell us what’s going on in YOUR corner of the world.
The current front page crew, which also includes afew, DoDo, Izzy and the stormy present, provides an amazing diversity of viewpoints, as it includes 6 nationalities (American, British, French, Hungarian, Irish, Swiss) and 6 countries of residence (Egypt, France, Hungary, Ireland, Switzerland, US), and even more job qualifications… – numbers which increase dramatically if you take into account our regular diarists and commenters, which include Spaniards, Italians, Bulgarians, Finns, Greeks, Swedes, Dutch, Germans, Canadians, Russians and many others I forget, who tell us about what’s going on in their countries, in their minds and elsewhere.
We were hoping to reach our millionth visitor on this birthday, but it looks like we’ll have to wait for another week or so to celebrate that milestone (unless many of you decide to come over and click here right now!). Whatever the date it happens, it’s still an incredible number of readers – that’s close to 2,000 regular readers each day: an encouraging – and humbling – public. But what’s even more noteworthy is the number of page views: with almost 5 million pages, we have very ‘sticky’ readers, which in fact means that we have very real, and exceedingly interesting conversation taking place in the threads. The wealth of the content of the site comes as much, if not way more, from the commenters than from the frontpagers and the diarists.
If you don’t read ET at all, or if you just read my diaries over at the big orange, and think that, as these often come from European Tribune stories or material, there is no real need to come over to ET and see what else might be on the site, I can only say that you are missing a lot of stuff (including from me!). I know that we all have busy lifes, and way too much to read already, but I will still encourage you to take a peek at the smart conversation on ET. I am constantly amazed by how much I learn on the site, and by the quality, breadth and depth of the collective expertise which shines through.
We’re wonky, and friendly, and nice, a really pleasant combination. Do come over and join the conversation, all new faces are always welcomed and encouraged, and we love to hear about new things.
A number of us will actually be meeting in Paris this week-end; if you’re around, you’re most welcome to come and join the fun; if not, do come to the site and help us make the third year of European Tribune as fun an adventure as the first two were.
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And if you still haven’t clicked over, thinking that you don’t really have the time to worry about what’s going on in Europe and elsewhere when you have a big enough task on your hands at home with Iraq, Bush or the primaries, let me say this, as a long time kossack and early boomer: comparing the parallel experiences of Europe and the US in the past few years is unexpectedly instructive: we see the same ideological forces pitched against us (the rich waging class warfare on the rest of us on the back of the YOYO – you’re on your own – mentality, using fearmongering to distract the population), we have the same overriding problems (global warming, resource depletion, globalisation, our relationship with the rest of the world) but we’re not always at the same stage in these trends (the neo-cons or neocon wannabes have more power in the US than in Europe, but they are not discredited over here and are still on the rise; inequality is not as bad in Europe, but the pressure to follow the deregulation, no-tax religion is growing; political action on the global warming front is a bit ahead in Europe). The comparison is often instructive, allowing us to know what’s at stake because we know where the trends can lead, to focus our political fight on what really matters, and making it possible to create alternative discourse based on experiences from other places.
Energy, sustainability, the fight between economic models favoring the few or the many, the strong or the weak, the growth of netroots-driven policy are at the core of the European Tribune “heart” and we think we are making progress in building a powerful alternative narrative, which we need to bring into the public sphere to fight back the neocon/neolib tide. So your help – in contributing to that debate, and in making the site better known – is vital.
As a kossack and boomer running a spin-off of both, I am most grateful to both communities, which encouraged me to write, helped me sustain the effort over time, and taught me a lot of things. I am sorry that my focus on ET has kept me mostly away from BT lately, but you have a great team of writers of your own in any case!
I’d like to finish with a word of thanks to kos himself, for sticking to a model that gives all of us (even foreigners) incredible freedom of speech and an amazing platform from which to be heard, and for his kind support to European Tribune over the past two years. The same can be said of Martin, who has managed to create and sustain his own platform (a not so easy task in the shadow of the big orange), was kind enough to see potential in my writing back then in early 2005, and has supported ET in every possible way.
Your European cousin salutes you, and hopes to emulate your success in changing how politics are done on our continent.
Now: clic here: European Tribune !
